Introduction. Quarries and Procurement Contexts of Rock in Hunter-Gatherer Societies. Variability and Approaches from Lithics and Landscapes in Argentina

Abstract

Studies on rock extraction sites have been of great importance for understanding the dynamics of societies, especially hunter-gatherer societies, within the framework of the territories they inhabited. In this sense, the areas with availability of lithic resources present a diverse and complex archaeological record that accounts for multiple social practices. These range from technological operations linked to the extraction of raw materials, the processing of resources and products, the manufacturing of instruments and/or their final disposal, to actions that are related to the logistics of people, the organization of work, the use of space and factors of a symbolic and/or ideological nature. In other words, these are places that bring together various techno-economic and social behaviors; spaces loaded with a particular significance where numerous knowledge, worldviews and ways of living were deployed over time. Its analysis and approaches are multiple, both from a theoretical and methodological point of view, and currently, its study is unquestionable, despite the problems of palimpsest, the difficulties in knowing the temporality of the events of obtaining rocks and the reconstruction of the dynamics of the environments where the outcrops are located.